ALCS Game Five Reflections: Oh We of Little Faith!

How, Red Sox Nation, can we have won tonight? 

How can it be that, after seeing Boston down 7-0 entering the seventh, I am reeling right now with joy?

To be sure, I play “Don’t Stop Believing” at regular intervals this time of year. I have “Dirty Water,” too, and “Tessie,” "Sweet Caroline," and “Shipping Up to Boston” on my list. I keep them cycling on my computer all through October. And I do believe. Boston, I do! 

But trailing by seven runs in the seventh inning???

Sometimes my team puts my own faith to shame. 

I saw the deficit and the odds and allowed them to sway me. How could I?  How could I have thought it impossible merely because it was? (I should have remembered The Princess Bride: “We’ll never survive!” said Buttercup. “Nonsense,” said Wesley. “You’re only saying that because no one ever has.” And after all these years, shouldn’t I have learned that from my Sox?)

In the 1986 ALCS, they were down 3-1. The next thing they did was win. 

(The next thing after that was lose, and tragically, but that’s a different matter).

In the 2004 ALCS, they were down 3-0. The next thing they did was win. And win again.

In 2007, they were down 3-1. The next thing they did was win. 

A measly seven run deficit tonight, and I lost faith?

Pedroia, Youkilis, Okajima, Masterson, Papelbon, Kotsay, Lowrie, Crisp, dear Drew, and dearest of Papis. They have shown me  the error of my ways.

I’m sorry, my Boston Red Sox! Whatever comes next, whatever comes in Saint Pete, I apologize. 

‘Til the last out, there is always hope.